Alterações em linfócitos TDCs e na expressão de moléculas coestimulatórias de apresentação de antígenos e na síntese de fator de necrose tumoral – alpha e interleucina – 12 induzidas por câncer de mama

Abstract

The components of the immune system have the ability to interact between them, to promote the development of an appropriate immune response. Some of its cells seem to overlap in terms of functions and markers, as the population of TDC cells, combining characteristics of T cells and dendritic cells. Objectives: the characterization of splenic TDCs obtained from healthy or breast tumor-induced 4T1 mice, evaluating the expression of antigen presenting and/or costimulatory molecules, and cytokines. Materials and Methods: The spleen cells from healthy and with tumors Balb/c mice were evaluated for expression of CD3, CD4, CD25, CD11c, CD11b, CD80, CD86, MHCII and also for the presence of cytokines IL-12 and TNFalpha. All the experiments were made in biological triplicate. Results and discussion: the presence of TDC cells in mice with the tumor-induced 4T1 (experimental group) decreased significantly in antigen presentation molecules (p = 0.0002), cells positive for IL-12 (p = 0.0260) and for marker of cell proliferation (p = 0.0001) in comparison with the healthy mice. Conclusion: we observed that markers and quantities of TDCs in mice were reduced in the presence of tumors. More studies are needed for the understand the effects of these cells mainly on the tumor microenvironment, which may suggest new alternatives of antitumor therapies.